Author: Mike Cotter

Mortality… This week, we lost folks from this earth. It is the same old story, over and over. We live, we love, we leave. Those left behind are left behind grieving and empty. While death is simply a part of life, “the debt that we all must pay” according to National Treasure (paraphrased from Ecclesiastes), […]

What’s left of the “cool” on Facebook??? In a previous life, I sat through meeting after meeting where we talked about DISRUPTION and MARKET SATURATION. We dreamed of getting “people under our umbrella” so that we could saturate their Inbox with disrupting offers and information! We dreamed of changing the world! These meetings, while tumultuous […]

As a full-time bookman and mostly self-employed guy over the last fifteen years or so, it only makes sense that I wanted to expand my base of knowledge into something that wasn’t straight retail. As a general rule, full-time dealers in nearly every facet of the collectibles industry have been doing appraisals for customers and […]

Is it just me or do natural disasters bring out the best in humanity??? We all know that organizations like the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders and even the Salvation Army travel the globe doing good for those impacted by nature’s fury. What strikes me of late is the compassion of the average “Joe” when […]

So, I have this Facebook friend… Is that really a friend these days??? Sometimes I feel closer to my Facebook friends than I do my real (in person) friends… The “friend” is Charles Lippincott. Charles was the original marketing director for the Star Wars Corporation back in 1976, the year the first book was released […]

Does blogging equal POWER??? I mean, unless you’re Donald Trump, does saying something actually turn heads? I was in this discussion this morning with a few fellow booksellers and I found myself trying to convince them that they have to do a blog. It isn’t a question, you just have to! After a bit of […]

Over the past few weeks, I have been lending a hand at sorting the collection of a rabid fan of the Fugitive Poets and Presidential signed books. In addition to scouting in these worthy subject areas, the collection, which began over twenty years ago, took on more of a “buy anything cheap” label. Due to the […]

I’ve mentioned it before, but my folks saved everything! Everything that would one day be worth absolutely nothing mind you. They saved old teddy bears, newspaper clippings, toys (thank goodness for this one really), programs, ticket stubs, clothes, belts, ties, participation awards… If it had to do with me, they saved it. Recently, with their move […]

Since my separation from the great state of Tennessee, a lot has happened. I started a new business that essentially relies on all of the selling techniques that never really worked that great in the past. I got a year older and started feeling bones creak that I did not know even existed. I moved […]

Like most folks out there who are self-employed, rare book-getter guys like me have had to learn the hard way that the realities of life never really go away even though we run from sale to sale hoping to out run our problems at the same time. Recently, while exhibiting at a show, I had […]